I
had a guest review of the Turtles last week, but Coheteboy sent along
another excellent perspective, so I thought I'd share! Take
it away...

Back in the late 80s/early 90s after the popularity of G.I.Joe and
Transformers has died down, a newcomer came to the spotlight.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a huge hit on tv as well as the
toys. Then just as most brands, the popularity
faded. But for those of you who've been around, you
definitely know that you can't keep a good concept down.
We've all seen G.I.Joe, Transformers, and Masters of the Universe climb
back out from hibernation so it is of little surprise that the Turtles
came back out of the sewers so to speak, bringing Playmates toys along
for the ride once again.

Although it may appear that the Turtles have been in hibernation, this
new line of TMNT is the second attempt of relaunching the
franchise. The first relaunch was simply called Ninja
Turtles: The Next Mutation and featured a short lived live action
series and a new turtle named Venus. This latest relaunch
returns to the animated series format and also goes back to the even
older comic book roots.

Here for review are Leonardo and Raphael simply
because they've been my favorite turtles since the beginning.
And of course reviewing four turtles can get a bit redundant.

Packaging - ***1/2
There is no missing this toy line when browsing the toy
aisles. It SCREAMS to be looked at. Bright, bold,
and full of attitude, the card convinces that anyone who owns these
figures are in for quite a ride. The title treatment is a bit
more extreme, but apparently the entire look of the brand is as
well. Each turtle has their own head gracing the front of
their cards and the other characters will get all four turtles in one
generic card back. The back of the cards shows the figure
details and descriptions of the accessories, as well as the old
fashioned file card for kids to clip and collect. But we all
know now that it's better to save the entire card, and these are
definitely worth saving.

The bubble also shows off the figure quite nicely. All
accessories are right there for you to examine, very much like the
Simpsons figures. Overall, the packaging is just awesome
making it very difficult for the weak minded fan to pass on
these. It worked on me!

Sculpting - ***1/2
I've been victim to saying that these turtles look just like the old
ones when I first saw pictures online. Boy, how could I be
that wrong? These look nothing like the old figures, but
memory can always make things up. Anyway, these turtles are
superbly sculpted, unique in their own ways. Unlike the old
toys, these turtles actually do resemble the cartoon versions.

Leonardo and Raphael actually have the best facial expressions in my
opinion, but they're all great. Leonardo actually resembles
the original face sculpt which makes it all that much more
interesting.

The sculpting overall is incredible. The team at playmates
made sure that the anatomy was accurate and more realistic than the
previous lines. The plastic used is even less shiny, making
for a very impressive figure(s).

Paint
- ***1/2The paint applications are
nicely done. Clean and consistent colors
throughout. Each turtle has a different shade of green just
like the old series. This time around, however, the
elbow/wrist and knee pads are all uniform in color making it a cleaner
style overall.

The paint in the teeth and eyes are clean as well and the colors on the
mask are sharp. There was a chance for them to get lazy and
make every turtle the same shade of green but thankfully that didn't
happen.

Bonus paint applications are in the shading of the front shell and of
course... the accessories!

Articulation
- ***
With new advances of sculpt and paint, there has to be new points of
articulation. While the TMNT line doesn't go far and beyond
such as the Muppets, it's still very consistent an adequate.

All the turtles have the same articulation:
-neck
-two in the shoulder
-bicep (where it meets the elbow pad)
-wrist
-two in the upper leg

The total comes out to 13 points that I can count which certainly beats
the original 7. All of the additional articulation basically
lies in the arms, allowing for better fighting stances. A
good job overall.

Accessories - ***There's nothing out of the
ordinary here but the highlight that will get all fans excited is the
thought of painted accessories. Your turtles and friends will
no longer fight with orange katana blades, sais, nunchuks, and
bo. The painted accessories applies to every character in the
toy line, not just the turtles.

Leonardo
comes equipped with twin Katana swords, complete with sheathes attached
to his belt. Also included are two ninja throwing stars and
two suction cup grips, allowing Leonardo to pull a Spider-man and scale
walls, or in our case, a flat smooth surface.

Raphael comes with twin Sais that also fit into his ninja belt (with
some difficulty), and two ninja stars. Also included is a
pulley line rider accessory that allows Raph to literally fly over the
foot.

Nice to see the turtles get a few more action accessories other than
the standard specialty weapon to add to the play value.

Value
- ***1/2
Depending on which store you purchase these, you can add a half or take
one away, so shop around before you commit. Since the
animated series premieres in a month, there should be plenty of product
on the pegs. These should be around $5.99-$6.99 depending on
the store. Anything more than that shouldn't be attempted.

Overall - ***1/2The turtles were always a great
concept and these toys really do show how cool it always was.
Great sculpts, great paint and detail, great accessories and
articulation, what more can you ask for in a toy line?
Vehicles? Those should be found at any store as well.

Where to Buy - Best places right now would be Walmart: $5.88, and
Target: $6.99, though they should be appearing at all retail markets
soon. Toys'R'Us and KB Toys are already stocking the giant
versions of these figures so it'll just be a matter of time.

- Amazon.com
has all the figures listed available for shipment right now, including
the Foot Soldier and Shredder. They also have pre-orders for
April and the Smart Car.

About the Reviewer:Coheteboy
collects almost every popular toy line and can be found in and around www.deathstarplans.com
creating action figure comics, dioramas, and graphics.